Hilton Hotels Corporation, the American hotel behemoth, has replaced Ross Klein as global head of luxury and lifestyle brands after a lawsuit brought by Starwood Hotels, his former employer, accused him of looting confidential information.

Sources close to the company confirmed today that Mr Klein, who had been placed on paid administrative leave in April after the launch of the legal action, has now left Hilton. He is being replaced by John Vanderslice, former chief executive of Miraval Spa in Tucson, Arizona.

The news that Mr Klein has left will reignite speculation that Hilton, which is also being sued, is close to agreeing a settlement with its rival aimed at drawing a line under what the writ called "the clearest imaginable case of corporate espionage, theft of trade secrets, unfair competition and computer fraud".

The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleges that Mr Klein and Amar Lalvani, a former Starwood colleague who defected with him to Hilton, "stole massive amounts of proprietary and highly confidential Starwood information".

It alleges that this information "was used to expedite Hilton's entry into the lifestyle hotel market, reposition its luxury brands and substantially reduce its costs and risks of doing so".

The suit claims that Mr Klein and Mr Lalvani "directly and through other Starwood luxury brands employees they recruited to Hilton, stole more than 100,000 electronic files before and after they joined Hilton".

It adds that confidential information on Starwood's successful W brand was used in the development of the Denizen brand, launched by Hilton in March in a blaze of publicity.

Hilton declined to comment on whether Mr Ross, or any of the other executives in the luxury and lifestyle brands division put on administrative leave, had left the company.

Mr Klein could not be reached for comment.

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